Thanks to Tracey’s tips, I’d suggest refrigerating the dough for only 1-1.5 hours, then leaving it on the counter to soften while the oven preheats. If you refrigerate for much longer, the dough is very hard to scoop and roll. Oh, and indent the tops *lightly* – if you indent firmly, you get some concavity in the tops of the cookies.

Yeah, I made these after hours in the fridge, and they were a total pain. Literally, my hands hurt from all the rolling. I wonder if they even require a chill. I might have to bake these again and bake off some right away just to see what happens.

I refrigerated for awhile and had dough that was difficult to work with and form. Although they aren’t pretty, they taste delish, especially after a day or two. I used mostly bittersweet with a little semi sweet

Just to put my two cents in – I refrigerated my half-recipe of dough for 56 minutes (what can I say, I lost patience), and made the first batch with the dough straight out of the fridge. I left the dough on the counter, and made the second dozen about half an hour later with room-temperature dough. I can’t tell any difference. Maybe the dough only needs a quick chill, like maybe 1/2 hour or so?

For once, I read the P&Q BEFORE making the recipe, and was sufficiently wary of rock hard dough to refrigerate it for only 20 minutes before rolling into balls. It was still warm in the center. Rather than squishing the balls of dough, I made them into little patties (to avoid the dents Caitlin mentioned). I baked half immediately, and have the rest in the fridge to bake tomorrow. The first batch ended up puffy and crackled. I left out the cloves, upped the cinnamon to 3/4 teaspoon and added 3/4 teaspoon of espresso powder to the chocolate mixture. They are delicious!

I made the dough and refrigerated overnight and it was impossible to roll. My hands hurt just like Jules. I think after an hour at room temperature I could start to form balls. I couldn’t flatten them though!

They turned out ok and taste great! They’re still quite fresh nearly a week after baking.